Carbon soot

WUWT readers surely remember all the media hype over this story. This was REP’s last entry on WUWT: As WUWT readers are aware, there has been a great deal of attention paid by the main stream media to the extensive melt on the Greenland icecap that occurred during July (for example, see here, here, here, here,…

From the University of Colorado at Boulder comes this press release and accompanying photo. The photo, showing hazy pollution laden air in the Bernese Alps, makes me wonder why they don’t attribute current glacier ice loss issues to soot. Asia in particular, is a leader in soot production, right next to those Himalayan glaciers that…

From the AGU Weekly Highlights, something I’ve pointed out more than a few times. See this photo of a moulin in upper Greenland, where carbon soot has collected at the bottom: Image from National Geographic online slide show – Photo: James Balog – click for more The authors find that BC (black carbon) emitted within…

From Los Alamos National Laboratory: Wildfires may contribute more to global warming than previously predicted They suggest that fire emissions could contribute a lot more to the observed climate warming than current estimates show. Haze of smoke emanating from the 2011 Las Conchas, NM fire. Particle analysis shows “tar ball” effect is significant LOS ALAMOS,…

From the Oh Noes department and the Max Planck Institute comes this headline sure to cause worry worts scurrying for carbon removing water filters: Massive amounts of charcoal enter the worlds’ oceans Wild fire residue is washed out of the soil and transported to the sea by rivers Wild fires turn millions of hectares of…

We’ve had several essays here at WUWT on the role of Black Carbon soot and its role in affecting surface albedo. Anyone who has ever witnessed “dirty snow” knows that it tends to melt faster than white snow under sunlight because the black carbon on top absorbs more solar energy than the base white snow…

I’ve often wondered if carbon soot plays a role in this. See our recent WUWT story about how black carbon’s role has been underestimated, and note that Arctic melting is listed as one of the effects. See also the tag I’ve added to the story at the bottom about what melt ponds start out as:…